violinist & educator

Surely this summer, like the ones before, will include awesome travel plans. (I never say no to an opportunity to travel abroad, especially with a concert or show involved.) But this summer will be alittle different because I will be on the road with WAITIKI. Now that “things” have changed in the band, Randy envisions a specific kind of sound and is now using me more than before, which I am happy about. Now that June is just around the corner, I’m excited about our trip to Berlin as we will be performing in the Water Festival. More information can be found here and there.

In August, I will be performing on keyboards with WAITIKI in Robert Drasin’s Voodoo band at the Tiki Oasis Festival (San Diego, CA). The last time I performed in Drasnin’s band was in Hukilau 2007, where we played a bunch of stuff from his Voodoo II album. It’s pretty mellow stuff with some catchy melodies and harmonies. My favorite is Puente Doble. I’m just simply attracted to those Latin grooves.

WAITIKI performed tonight at a very special event held only once a year at NEC – the Alumni Showcase! Brown Hall was decorated as a cabaret club featuring a program of a variety of players and music that ranged from classic Mozart to sizzling-hot Latin rhythms. Besides being surrounded by NEC alums (some were graduates in the 50′s and 60′s!), it was an honor to be playing along with fellow colleagues, namely Zaccai Curtis and his Latin Jazz group Rhythmic Prophecies. It was such a great turnout and we all got many compliments and positive feedback. We will be playing again with RP tomorrow night at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. Please see WAITIKI.com for more information.

For my own reference, this was also the first time I used a wireless microphone such as this one. Seems pretty good! I’ll put up some sound clips later on and do some research and comparison. I definitely like the idea of having a microphone rather than a pick-up for what I do with WAITIKI.